That's a lot of money for a company that made approximately $50 million over the past 12 months, but apparently Stratasys felt it had to make a move for reasons I've explained here.

And as we know, acquisitions are more about the perceived magical combination of the companies rather just about the competencies of company being bought, and when you start to think of the potential of a combined Stratasys/Makerbot, some really interesting possibilities come to mind.

Below are three ways I think the combination of Stratasys and Makerbot will help change 3D printing:

Makerbot will become the first true consumer 3D printing brand

In reality, the consumer market for 3D printing doesn't even exist today. Today's low-end 3D printing market is a mix of prosumer and makers, but the casual consumer - those with discretionary dollars that mass markets are made of - are only really just now beginning to learn about 3D printing.

While HP has dabbled in 3D printing through an early partnership with Stratasys, they later disbanded the deal. I think HP, which likes big volumes in its printer business, probably felt they were a bit too early to the market, which was a low-volume, high priced one at the time.

However, with the Stratasys move and 3D printing coming down the cost curve, I expect big tech to get off its 3D printing hindquarters. And it won't just be HP or another big hardware company who likes the razors model making a bet on 3D printing hardware, but this move could also cause someone like Amazon to look more closely at 3D printing. Sure, Amazon's Bezos has pooh-poohed 3D printing as too far off, but I think the futurist in Bezos will want to eventually up his bet in 3D printing, which ultimately might mean creating a Shapeways-like services business (or maybe even by buying Shapeways itself).

Expect 3D printing to get much better at low end

And perhaps the biggest potential change will be what Stratasys IP can bring to the consumer and prosumer market. Today Makerbot and other Reprap machines use FDM technology, which creates functional but rough-around-the-edges prototypes. However, Stratasys owns Objet (a company it acquired last year) and its patented Polyjet technology, an ink-jet like process that creates much higher-fidelity, beautiful 3D prints.

Maybe, just maybe, Stratasys can figure out a way to eventually bring Objet's Polyjet tech to the Makerbot printers at a reasonable price.

And if they do? That, my friends, would be a truly magical 3D printed combination.